Buy it... if gloomy, depressing scores of exotic and orchestral
beauty feed your hunger for tragic melodrama, Charlie Mole's first major
career score an essential entry in any collection of music for
Shakespearian adaptations.

Avoid it... if the resounding elegance of deeply brooding film
music has no place in your otherwise bright and cheery life.

EDITORIAL REVIEW

FILMTRACKS TRAFFIC RANK: #1,875

WRITTEN
2/27/12

BUY IT

Othello: (Charlie Mole) For those with a morbid
sense of humor, there is reason to embrace William Shakespeare's "The
Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice." It has all the deceit,
betrayal, and sex that one could wish from a tale of interpersonal
turmoil. Sent from the Venetian Republic of the 16th Century, its
characters spend most of the play in emotional and physical battle on
the island of Cyprus. The titular character is a Moorish general in the
Venetian army, deployed on his mission to Cyprus to ward off a Turkish
threat that was ultimately destroyed by a storm before his forces
arrive. While celebrating on the island, a series of events unfolds due
to the power struggles and romantic jealousy that exist between several
important officers. An ensign (Iago) and a lieutenant (Cassio) both seek
higher rank and the former uses his own wife (Emilia) and Othello's wife
(Desdemona) in a complicated plot of adultery to benefit his own chances
for ascendency despite pretending to be Othello's most loyal officer. As
you would expect, the story ends tragically, with unnecessary killings
of major characters and bittersweet confessions of love unheeded. The
story had been adapted to film six times before the 1995 version by
novice director Oliver Parker, but his Othello was noted as being
the first major Hollywood adaptation of the concept to appropriately
cast a black man in the lead role. Laurence Fishburne had the honor of
portraying Othello, and highly acclaimed in his continued presence in
the realm of Shakespeare was Kenneth Branagh in the role of Iago.
Parker's Othello truncated some lines as necessary for the film,
though he also added several scenes of visual importance (sans
dialogue), including gratuitous interludes of sex and a somewhat
unnecessary burial scene at the end. Regardless of positive critical
response, the film suffered during its limited theatrical release and
did not come close to recouping its $11 million budget. One of the
unexpectedly impressive aspects of Othello is its score, composed
by the then completely unknown British songwriter Charlie Mole. First as
a member of a band and then as a songwriter for other artists, Mole
eventually sought a career in composing music primarily for television,
a medium in which he solidified his career in the 2000's. Representing
his breakthrough assignment, Othello unfortunately proved to be
the arguable pinnacle of his career in feature assignments, Mole never
again achieving this level of mainstream recognition on the big screen
(despite the film's total failure). This turn of events is something of
a tragedy itself, given the quality that he produced for
Othello.

The tone of Mole's approach to Othello is
perfect for the topic, orchestral in foundation and exotic in its
instrumental colors, all of which brooding with a sense of morbid
romanticism. The orchestra is dominated by low strings, aided in the
tender moments by woodwinds and in the fleeting scenes of grandeur by
brass. Almost always tonally accessible, the ensemble is joined by a
collection of interesting specialty instruments meant clearly to reflect
Cyprus and the heritage of Othello. An oud, guitar, shawm, and a variety
of percussion and ethnic flutes combine with wailing vocals to address
these needs, some of which assembled for the two source-like dance
pieces necessary for Mole to finish for use in filming. These tones also
darken the ambience as Mole attempts to address the suspense element
rather than the straight romance. His application of these specialty
sounds is outstanding, interesting and never too foreign, though he
largely abandons them as the score progresses. Just as important to the
score's success is Mole's set of well-developed thematic ideas, spread
satisfyingly throughout the work and supplanting the exotic elements
with resounding orchestral performances at the end of the score. The
primary theme is vaguely suggested in "Main Title" before receiving two
phenomenal, full ensemble renditions in "The Arrival." The layering of
the exotic instruments with the orchestra is never better than in "The
Arrival," the shawm seemingly used like a descending electric guitar
tone. References of solace in "Divinity of Hell" and torment at the end
of "The Torret" lead to suspenseful explorations in "The Well" and
"Iago's Stabbing." Mole's explosion of force in the highlighting "End
Credits" is anchored by extremely melodramatic renditions of this theme
as well. A secondary theme of romance is hinted in "The Garden" but
formally introduced on oboe in "The Prayer." Its lovely progressions
guide the integral performance in "The Willow Song," a stunningly
beautiful combination of cast performance and accompanying instrumentals
(with the film version transferred to album). The full ensemble uses
this theme for the emotional finale in "Burial" and as the conclusion to
the suite in "End Credits." A secondary motif of agitation exists for
chopping bass strings, heard during the stewing "The Beach" and the
vindictive "Go!" before informing the resolute rhythm at the outset of
"End Credits." Together, these themes and their initially interesting
instrumentation yield a depressingly powerful sonic representation of
Othello. The whole is somber, but it soars with magnificence by
the last two cues, which, when combined with "The Arrival," yield twelve
minutes of essential music for the Shakespearian realm of tragedy. This
score remains one of the more compelling hidden gems in the film music
community, despite its extremely gloomy demeanor. ****@Amazon.com: CD or
Download

 1. Main Title ("Tis certain then for Cyprus") (3:12)
 2. The Garden ("She loved me for the dangers I had passed and I loved her that she did pity them") (1:22)
 3. The Arrival ("Hell and night must bring this monstrous birth to the world's light") (3:37)
 4. Torch Dance ("Villainous thoughts, Roderigo") (2:39)
 5. Revelry ("The purchase made, the fruits are to ensue") (4:16)
 6. The Fight ("Cassio, I love thee, but never more be officer of mine") (4:24)
 7. Divinity of Hell ("So will I turn her virtue into pitch and out of her own goodness, make the net that shall enmesh them all") (3:37)
 8. Flashback ("and yet how nature erring from itself") (3:08)
 9. The Beach ("give me a living reason she's disloyal") (1:01)
 10. The Fit ("as he shall smile Othello shall go mad") (2:14)
 11. Behind Bars ("how shall I murder him Iago") (2:06)
 12. The Turret ("Do it not with poison, strangle her in her bed") (2:03)
 13. Go! ("Swear thou art honest") (2:16)
 14. The Prayer ("I cannot say whore") (1:52)
 15. The Well (1:11)
 16. The Willow Song ("he she loved proved mad and did forsake her") (2:05)
 17. It is the Cause ("one more and this the last, so sweet was ne'er so fatal") (3:30)
 18. Desdamona's Death ("kill me tomorrow, let me live tonight") (3:30)
 19. Iago's Stabbing ("I bleed sir but not killed, from this time forth I never will speak word") (1:35)
 20. Burial ("I kiss thee ere I killed thee, no way but this, killing myself, to die upon a kiss") (3:44)
 21. End Credits (4:33)

NOTES AND QUOTES

The otherwise sparse insert includes a short note from the composer about the score.